An untold tale from the Great Silver Age
by David Scholes
Summary: Often have mortal men wondered what might happen if the great Galactus were to clash with AllMighty Odin. In truth they did clash, long ago, in the great Silver Age. Listen now to this previously untold tale of the clash of the Titans!


Silver Age Odin

**An untold tale from the Great Silver Age **

**Galactus faces All Asgard **

History has it that there was a time when Odin and Galactus were the two major powers in the Universe. It was a simpler Universe then but a time of grandeur and true greatness that has not been seen since. It was the Silver Age when only one entity existed to threaten Mighty Odin's hegemony over the heavens – the Great Galactus devourer of worlds!

**Asgard City **

Both Odin and the Grand Vizier watched Odin's all seeing globe with deepening apprehension.

Grand Vizier: " He doth come then , there can no longer be any doubt, the great Galactus comes to Asgard itself ! "

Odin: "Aye - the event we have all long feared be now almost upon us".

Grand Vizier: " The dimensional barriers will not protect us then ? "

Odin: "Nay - while interdimensional teleportation be not a great strength of Galactus, the barriers shall not hinder one such as he!"

Grand Vizier: " His power doth rival thine own, cans't thou stop him and thus prevent the destruction of all Asgard ?"

Odin: " In all truth I know not, ne'er before have I faced a power of this magnitude"

**Deep Space **

The gleaming silvery form of Galactus herald the former Norrin Radd (a mighty individual in his own right) raced toward Asgard at many times the speed of light.

Lagging not far behind came Galactus himself ensconced within his monstrous worldship, a law unto himself and totally unassailable. He was seemingly oblivious to all but the need to satiate his great hunger.

Suddenly the Silver Surfer's speed slowed almost to a halt and the Worldship did likewise, both slowed by an unseen force – the OdinPower itself ! A huge audo-visual image of Odin then appeared before them.

Odin (audio-visual image) : " What dost thou do here Mighty Galactus – what business hast thou with golden Asgard ? - if thou dost seek to assuage thy hunger at the expense of my people then thou shalt find the cost greater indeed than the prize !"

Galactus: (moving outside his worldship to address the audio-visual image of Odin)

" None question the purpose of Galactus - I do what I must in order to survive and none, not even you Great Odin, shall challenge me. I do indeed come to Asgard, there to feast upon the plentiful energies of your great race – consider yourself fortunate indeed that such a rich prize has been spared until now !"

Odin: " This is thy first and final warning Galactus, cease from thy present course and seek sustenance elsewhere or thou shall feel the full force of the Odinpower ! - Thou coulds't have chosen any other world yet thou dos't come to Asgard and challenge me – I who am the will and the way and the only power capable of stopping you, truly your actions are incomprehensible to me ! "

With that the audio-visual image of Odin disappeared and Galactus and the Surfer both entered the worldship to discuss Odin's challenge.

Silver Surfer: " Should you perhaps reconsider Galactus ?, the OdinPower is not something to take lightly, and there are a multitude of other worlds "

Galactus: " I will allow none to dictate to me, Surfer, not even Allfather Odin – I have determined that the godly energies of all Asgard will be sufficient to satiate me for a long time to come. As to Odin, a clash between us was inevitable."

Surfer: " You allow him no choice in the matter Galactus, you cannot expect him to do anything other than defend the Asgardian race argghh !".

At that instant Odin had launched simultaneous mind assaults on both the Surfer and Galactus. While the Surfer buckled almost instantly Galactus was a different matter. As Odin entered Galactus mind he encountered a "mindscape" far more alien than anything he could ever have imagined. To Odin this simply served to reinforce how different and truly alien an entity Galactus was compared to the pantheon gods.

Within that "mindscape" Odin and Galactus met in headlong assault in a titanic mental struggle which led eventually to Odin being ejected from the mind of Galactus.

Odin: " Do not think you have triumphed over me Galactus, this was but the first of many different attacks that I shall launch against you if you continue on your present course"

Galactus was still reeling under Odin's assault on his mind and chose not to reply as realisation dawned on him that the Odin's mind assault on the Surfer had been irreversible.

Surfer: " I can serve you no longer Galactus, Odin has shown me this "

Galactus: " You are no use to me now Surfer in your present state, thus with but a gesture do I strip you of the power cosmic and transport you to a habitable world."

Lamenting the loss of his herald and angry at Odin for causing this Galactus proceeded on to Asgard.

**Asgard City**

Grand Vizier: " Still he doth come Milord Odin, what will you do next

, use the Destroyer armour ? "

Odin: " Nay, faithful one, for the armour is very much a last resort – if I use it myself I will have to place my physical body beyond the reach of Galactus or all will be lost, I must presume he knows this fact."

For the remainder of his journey to Asgard, Galactus had the defensive screens of his worldship at full capacity as were a plethora of the ships detection devices focussing on Asgard for whatever attack Odin might launch. While the path of the ship was monitored by Odin and was also followed by Loki in astral form no other action was taken by Odin until the great ship's arrival. Galactus lashed out at the astral form of Loki which was nothing more than an irritation to him but Loki retreated before Galactus coud destroy his astral form. Odin and the Vizier now joined by Thor, Lady Sif, Balder and the Warriors Three continued to monitor the approach of Galactus.

Odin: " Make secure thy hammer my son and prepare thyself, on my word, for a possible godblast against Galactus". "If I call on you then spare him not - let him feel thy full might !" " Balder – prepare the Destroyer armour and inhabit it and stand ready to receive the life forces of all other Asgardians should this be necessary"

Thor: " What of great Surtur my liege ? and Ymir, Hela and Karnilla – where stand they in this ? "

Odin " Alas, my son if Galactus doth only confine his efforts to Asgard they will be view him as an ally and will be delighted to see him do there work for them. Howe'er if they sense that Galactus will move against their own domains then they will move against him. For the nonce, at least, they do sit upon the fence as those of Midgard might say "

Lady Sif: " Milord, I hesitate to broach the matter, but if all else fails, how will't though protect thy children ? "

Odin: " If I feel our efforts failing I will as a final resort interdimensionally transport all Asgard, or all that is left of Asgard, to another pocket dimension. A destination I have agree with Lord Zeus. If I fail in this, Zeus himself, while he will not join us in battle, will at least transport Asgard for me. I am certain that Zeus will not fail me in this."

Thor: " Milord thou has't allowed Galactus to approach close indeed to Asgard, even if he is defeated there will inevitably be great damage to Asgard in the process ? "

Odin "Attend my words my son, and all present, for now am I to use a great defensive weapon, knowledge of which, I have held back from all of you. This is because never before had we possible need of this weapon. Yonder within the Great Hall stands the Shield of Odin,while it doth presently take the form of a physical shield such as would have been used by our Viking worshippers of days gone by, it is far, far more than that. The shield can take the form of a great force field large enough to protect all Asgard, at least for a time, against quite powerful attacks and certainly against what mortal men might describe as collateral damage."

Grand Vizier: " All is in readiness then Milord Odin, there be no more that we can do"

Odin " Indeed, Vizier !"

Galactus Worldship arrived shortly thereafter and while staying many thousands of kilometre above Asgard City, it still loomed monstrously and menacingly large.

While such an arrival would normally cause great panic among a population the Asgardians were a hardy race and were angered more than cowed. They were confident in themselves that Odin would not allow the destruction of Asgard. Many manned the city's various defences such as the mystical and electronic cannon dotted around various fortifications, although this was only a token gesture. Still more readied themselves for the possibility that Odin might summon their life energies to join Balder in the Destroyer construct.

Galactus left his Worldship and grew to a physical size of 1000 feet as he moved closer to Asgard City. Odin mystically enhanced his own size to match Galactus and levitated forth to meet him. The two great Titans moved quite close to one another and for the first time in the entire history of the multiverse Mighty Odin Allfather of Asgard and Great Galactus Devourer of Worlds come physically face to face. For a moment it seemed that the entire multiverse held its breath.

Odin: " It is not too late even now, Great Galactus, for you to withdraw from Asgard – there are none who will think less of you should you choose to do so"

Galactus: " It is too late now Mighty Odin, I am here and I hunger – I will wait no longer. I see you have made grand preparations to defend your realm but in the end they will prove to be of no avail to you for I am Galactus and you will find that none can stand against me ! "

Odin: " We shall see Galactus, we shall see !

With that Mighty Odin his whole huge form coruscating with vast amounts of Asgardian energy struck Galactus the mightiest of blows hurling the great one back towards his Worldship. Galactus shrugged off Odin's combination physical and energy blow as if it were nothing and launched a massive cosmic energy strike that both surprised and staggered Odin. The two then come together actually physically wrestling one another their huge forms coruscating with different yet fundamentally equal energies – the power cosmic versus the OdinPower.

Odin was the first to show signs of tiring under Galactus relentless pressure and he made an attempt to teleport Galactus into limbo. While such a tactic might have worked on a lesser entity it failed against Galactus and suddenly, unexpectedly Galactus hurled Odin towards Asgard City where his landing caused a huge crater.

Odin drew in vast amounts of surrounding meteorites and cosmic debris and hurled them against Galactus but this attack was less than useless against Galactus whose personal force shields were not even dented.

Realising that he and Galactus were relatively evenly matched but also that the Odin Shield would only briefly protect Asgard City – the Lord of Asgard decided that the battle must be finished quickly – the longer it took the greater the damage to Asgard and the greater Galactus's chance of victory. Shrugging off Galactus blow Odin levitated above Asgard and at the same time signalled Thor to prepare a full on god blast – he also signalled to Balder to ready the Destroyer contruct (inhabited by many Asgardian souls) for a full on visor blast.

In the instant before the attack Galactus realised the peril that he faced – he faced attack from three sources: (1) a godblast of the highest intensity from Thor from Asgard below, (2) a disintegration visor blast from the destroyer construct now levitating near Galactus, and (3) a bludgeoning wave of Asgardian energy stemming from the Odin Lord of Asgard himself.

Galactus could almost certainly have withstood one of these attacks and just possibly two but not all three together and so as his force shields began to buckle then fail and his personal armour was stripped away, the physical/energy being known as Galactus opened the palm of his hand to reveal that most deadly of all weapons the ultimate nullifier. Which, legend has it, can destroy the Universe.

Thus this the first battle between Galactus and Asgard proved inconclusive. Under threat of annihilation from the ultimate nullifier Odin allowed Galactus to depart without further harm and the great one never came this way again.

Yet no matter the circumstances the home of the norse gods had survived and from every corner of Asgard the cry went out " Praise be to almighty Odin Allfather of Asgard !"


End file.
